Jerry Remy, former Red Sox player and broadcaster, died Saturday. He was a unique individual. Here’s what made him special to me and millions of other baseball fans. As an avid watcher of Red Sox baseball, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, I heard a lot of Jerry Remy. He and his broadcast partners, first…
In yesterday’s Boston Globe, Boston’s most visible sportswriter, Dan Shaughnessy, wrote a column about the Red Sox asking, “Are they a team you can embrace?” In case you’re not a Red Sox fanatic like many of us here in New England, here’s the backstory. The Red Sox seemed like a team unlikely to go far…
On my Facebook profile, under “religion,” it says “Red Sox fan.” So I cannot remain silent about the special set of uniforms that the Boston Red Sox and Nike unveiled for the team to wear on April 17-18. Here’s how they look. I apologize if this photo has made you come close to losing your…
Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for winning the World Series. What made the difference? Was it the heart and talent of the players? Or was it the cold, hard Moneyball analytics that have made baseball as much science as art? It was a combination of both. This is “Coralytics,” the new approach of Red…
The Boston Red Sox fired their manager John Farrell yesterday. He then made a surprising statement thanking everyone he worked with, including the ownership and management team that just fired him. You need a little context to fully understand his statement. Farrell’s five years with the Red Sox featured extremes, including a surprising World Series…
Adam Jones, center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles, said fans at Fenway Park threw peanuts at him and shouted the n-word. The Red Sox — and many other prominent Boston figures — have not only apologized, but taken action. Take note: if your organization gets in trouble, this is a case study in how to respond properly. To…
David Ortiz, “Big Papi,” played his final game last night. The warmth I feel about this player has no limits. Why? How did I come to admire a black man from the Dominican Republic with a heavy Spanish accent? What could I possibly have in common with this man? And why is Ortiz so popular with so…
Red Sox fans are wicked biased — anything their team does is right, anything the other team does (especially the Yankees) is terrible. This is barely acceptable for sports. It’s a terrible model for politics. But it’s the model millions of voters appear to be stuck in. I call this the “Yankees suck” school of political…
To comprehend the absurdity of 2016, just think how it would appear to an observer from 2000. I remember 2000 — it was an intense five years into my tenure as an analyst. We could see where things were going. The Web had vanquished walled gardens like AOL and was about to become universal. People were…